Are you eating vegetables? If not, who is?

Are you eating vegetables? Who is eating vegetables? The European Union promotes a ‘5-a-day’ campaign to encourage people to eat the recommended daily amount of fruit and vegetables – 5 portions – or pieces – of either fruit or vegetables a day for good health. However the daily consumption varies widely between EU Member States (Finchannel.com, 17 October 2016).

About a third (34.4%) of the population in EU Member States, aged 15 or over, did not eat fruit and vegetables on a daily basis in 2014. And less than fifteen percent (14.1%) of people in the EU consumed at least the recommended 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day.

The European Health Interview Survey, issued by Eurostat – the statistical office of the European Union – conducted a study of fruit and vegetable consumption to mark the World Food Day on 16 October 2014.

In Romania 65.1% of people, aged 15 or over, do not eat fruit and vegetables daily, whereas Belgium is significantly better with only 16.5% who do not eat fruit and vegetables daily. In the United Kingdom 33.1% of over 15 year olds eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables daily, whereas in Romania and Bulgaria only 3.5% and 4.4% of people respectively eat 5 portions a day.

The higher the education level, the higher the proportion of the population that eats 5 portions a day of fruit and vegetables. In 2014, 18.8% of highly-educated people across the EU, aged 15 or over, on average ate at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. This is compared with 12.1% of people with a low education level. The widest gap between consumption and education levels was in the United Kingdom (40.%% for highly educated people compared with 24.9% with a low level of education).

Females eat more fruit and vegetables than males in the EU. On average 17.6% of females, aged 15 or over in the EU, ate fruit and vegetables daily, compared with 11.3% of males.

Portions of fruit and vegetables includes raw and cooked, canned and tinned, fresh and frozen, mashed and whole, in soup or on the plate.

There are no comparative figures, in this current study, with other years to determine whether the consumption of fruit and vegetables are increasing or decreasing. The European Union continues to promotes their ‘5-a-day’ campaign to eat the recommended daily amount of 5 pieces of fruit or vegetables a day, and especially for men to increase their daily intake.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).